New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?
Various
World War, 1914-1918
The German troops repulsed by our soldiers entered Louvain in full
panic. Various witnesses assure us that at that moment the German
garrison occupying Louvain was advised erroneously that the enemy was
entering the town. Immediately the German garrison withdrew toward the
station, where it met with the German troops that had been repulsed and
pursued by the Belgian troops. Everything seems to indicate that a
collision took place between the two German regiments. From that moment,
under pretext that the Louvain civilians had fired upon them, a fact
which is contradicted by all witnesses, and which would hardly have been
possible inasmuch as all the inhabitants of Louvain, for several days
past, had been obliged to hand their arms over to the local
authorities, the German soldiers began to bombard the city. Moreover,
not one of the witnesses has seen the body of a single civilian at the
place where the affray happened. The bombarding lasted until 10 o'clock
at night. Afterward the Germans set fire to the city.
Burning of the Town.
The houses which had not taken fire were entered by German soldiers, who
threw fire grenades, which seem to have been provided for the occasion.
The largest part of the City of Louvain, especially the quarters of the
Ville Haute, comprising the modern houses, the Cathedral of St. Peter,
the University Halls, with the whole library of the university, its
manuscripts, its collections, the largest part of the scientific
institutions, and the town theatres, were at the moment being consumed
by flames.
The commission deems it necessary, in the midst of these horrors, to
insist on the crime of lese humanity which the deliberate annihilation
of an academic library--a library which was one of the treasures of our
time--constitutes.
Numerous corpses of civilians covered the street and squares. On the
route from Louvain to Tirlemont alone one witness testifies having seen
more than fifty of them. On the threshholds of houses were found burned
corpses of people who, surprised in their cellars by the fire, had tried
to escape and fell into the heap of live embers. The suburbs of Louvain
have been completely annihilated.
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